Bloo

Welting (or beading or piping): The small bead often seen around the edge of a seat seam. It is made with the sewing machine feet Hubert_25_25 shows. Windlace; Giant welting made with a foam core. Usually found around door openings. It is made with a zipper foot (half foot) on the sewing machine because it is too large to make with a special welting foot, Typically about 1/2" in diameter. Wire-On: Special edging with bendable wire inside, you tack it down and then bend it over to cover the tacks, One side is bigger than the other. Once installed, it looks like a piece of windlace laying next to a piece of welting. It is actually a little thinner/flatter than windlace. Hidem: similar purpose to wire-on, this one has two pieces of equal-sized welting running next to each other with stitching along the outside. You spread the pieces of welting apart to get the tacks or staples in, and it just sort of springs back. I'm still a bit confused about what that is in broker-len's picture. Also see this thread:

Take whatever parts are getting hot apart and scrape. It might be where the cable clamps to the battery post. Take it off and scrape the inside of the hole and the outside of the post. If the terminal is just clamped to the wire, you might need to take that apart and clean it out too. The heat points you to the problem. Ignition switch does not need to be grounded.

Or maybe 180 degrees out? It will appear to be correct, but instead of running will intermittently pop back through the carb and exhaust. EDIT: Probably not if it wasn.t ever pulled. Make sure the ground wire in the distributor is present, and that the hot wire from the side post to the points has no bare spots that are touching ground. If there is no dwellmeter available, set the points with a feeler gauge. If there is no feeler gauge available, use a matchbook. Drag a piece of paper soaked in brake clean or alcohol through them (while closed) to clean them off after setting them.

Apples and Oranges (and maybe Eggplants). If you learned to double clutch in old trucks like I did, then sports cars are a whole new game. Even though the theory is exactly the same, I had to learn it all over again. The experience is completely different. Shifting a brass era or other early car is yet another thing. It will most likely be sliding gears, but running in some thick glop like 600W steam oil or maybe SAE1500 semi-fluid grease. There will probably be either a leather cone clutch, or a multiple disc clutch, which are quite different from each other, and neither are particularly easy to handle for a beginner. There might also be a clutch brake. It isn't that tough, but it is completely different. You get to learn to shift all over yet again.

Well, I hope they have a solution.

Can it be on a separate contact on the switch as the diagram you posted shows? Or is the switch just hosed? If so maybe it could be fixed?

Well, unless something is wildly different for Canada, since its a deluxe, you have a real voltage regulator. You should also have a third brush for current regulation, but I doubt it's adjustable. The funny the funny thing about third brush current regulation is that the maximum output is at some given rpm, and if it goes slower or faster it falls off. How fast the engine turns will affect how much you have available. Yours should be a 32 amp generator (for testing purposes). Real life output will be substantially less. When you have a voltage regulator, if the system keeps up, it will run at regulator voltage. That should be 7.65v@70F if yours is early, or 7.45@70F if it is after serial 8r-000001, according to my old Motor manual. Those values were often adjusted a little to match driving habits better. The regulators are also temperature compensated, and turn themselves up a little in the cold and down a little when hot. It sounds like yours is doing fine. I have a sneaking hunch it might have creeped on up to normal voltage with the lights on after running a while. The battery isn't a great place to connect headlight loads. You would do better at the battery terminal on the voltage regulator. I know they always pulled from the starter battery terminal on the old headlight relay kits, but it should really be connected to something on the other side of the ammeter. With the headlight loads connected to the battery, all the current they draw registers on the ammeter as "charge" which it isn't. That is pretty misleading. The battery might not be getting charged at all. The battery terminal on the regulator is the hottest place in the system (for brightest lights), as long as the generator is keeping up. if it isn't keeping up, your lights are going to be dim no matter what.

7.5 sounds wonderful. I would love to see that with everything on, too, but I'm not surprised it didn't. I see you have fog lights. What else do you have? Heater? Radio? Other stuff? Is your car a standard or a deluxe?

The black one (a little harder to find on the site) is also still out of stock. https://bobsautomobilia.com/interior-floors-and-doors/floormat-w-jute-backing-black-1934-36-ff-36bku/ I have not called lately but will soon.

Bob's used to stock unpunched ones in both black and brown that could be self-trimmed for earlier models, RHD, Pontiacs, etc. There were rumors of another run possibly this year. I don't know where that stands now. I could sure use one myself.

I have some similar tools by that manufacturer. The dwellmeter and tachometer are two separate instruments, but look almost exactly the same. Mine are much older than the 1960s judging by the components used, and I suspect this one is too, maybe just slightly newer because the two instruments are combined.

A post over on the VCCA forums would probably get you an answer about the 36-48 cylinders. https://vccachat.org/ If it were me I would have the old ones sleeved. Brake and Equipment (of Minneapolis) can do that, as can Apple Hydraulics who PFitz mentioned.

A 318 starter will bolt to a 383. There can be differences in the windings (and probably how much torque), but they all bolt on, Slant Six to 440 magnum. There is a small Japanese starter that will bolt up to the older Mopars and saves a little space and weight. I assume that is the Dakota starter you guys refer to, but I really cant remember. Theres nothing wrong with it, and it is probably gear reduction as well. If/when it fails, the trouble is usually the copper bolt (just like the original Mopar starter). Would it have enough torque for a 383? I don't know, maybe, but I'll bet it will bolt up and engage. Unless you are trying to drop weight, or need the clearance, I would stick with the original. EDIT: I am referring to 1962 and later aluminum torqueflite cars. Before 1962, things can get weird, and 383s and 318s did exist back then.

My gut feeling is you need a different shop.

That is a Group B rally car. Any Group B car is worth a lot of money. That series produced some of the most insane, exotic, over-the-top high performance cars ever made. They have never been cheap, and demand has always exceeded supply. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-11/ugly-old-lancia-delta-s4-worth-1-million-on-classic-car-market

As near as I have been able to deduce, for USA Fisher bodied cars, the carpet binding would have been artificial leather or leathercloth, probably nitrocellulose based, like Fabrikoid (similar to Rexine in the UK). I think leather was also a possibility, but much less likely. In Australia or South Africa, all bets are off. I agree with John_Mereness that Wilton wool carpet, cloth backed if you can find it, is most likely closer to original than anything else. I am no expert though. I have been collecting pictures of old shredded (probably original) mid 30s Fisher interiors for a while now. My intention was to post a thread asking these questions and a bunch of others. I doubt any of it would be much use for Australia or South Africa, as I suspect local materials would have been used.

In the old way of doing things, the flasher has a third terminal for the indicator light. It's purpose is to blink an indicator light, one only for both sides (not an individual right and left like you have). If your brake lights are completely separate from the signals, and I believe they are on a 41, all you need for signal lights is one SPDT switch. It connects all of the right (or left) bulbs to the "load" terminal on the flasher. Since Buick had two indicators, they could have just connected them to the rest of the signal lights right there at the switch. I cannot imagine why they didn't. I believe what I am looking at on your scan of the wiring diagram is a DPDT switch. The right side operates as described above. On the left, I believe they took the flasher's indicator terminal and switched it right/left with another set of contacts. Sounds like you got it working though. Connecting the indicators to the signals is how it is done in newer models. Also, all 3 pin flashers are not created equal. Sometimes that third indicator pin doesn't do exactly what you would have expected it to do in 1941. Stranded wire is used only for mechanical reasons. It is less prone to fatigue and breakage. The electricity will not care at all. I can't even guess about the LEDs. I have been watching your LED posts with interest over time, planning to copy you at some point, in order to brighten the tail/stop lights, and also take a little load off my generator. LEDs are funny beasts. As you noted it takes very little to light them up. I suppose it could be coupling from another wire, but I'll bet it is just noise on the whole electrical system. I have seen spikes of over 200 volts on the electrical systems of 12 volt 1960s-1970s cars, apparently due to collapsing magnetic fields (ignition systems, horns, relay coils, voltage regulators, and so on). Cars with electronics have little resistors, diodes, etc. all over the place to control it. My 6 volt Pontiac is so noisy that digital test instruments wont even work on it. I gather the right side dash indicator is working on the original wiring? If so, and the left side isn't, that would have to be a problem with the switch. I believe those left side terminals are a simple SPDT switch. If so you should be able to hook it up Buick's way and not have that long wire picking up noise. Maybe the switch needs repair. I doubt a series resistor would help. Maybe a resistor to ground, though I don't know how much current it would have to draw to solve this. Maybe even a small capacitor to ground.

Find the hottest spot and look for a bad connection there. If the whole cable length gets hot, instead of just one spot, the cable may be too small.

I am not really for them or against them, although I do usually drive bare handed. I would say the ventilated and especially fingerless driving gloves are just part of the uniform if you have an old British roadster, or some sort of a barely-legal track car. I wouldn't mind having a pair if I owned a car with really heavy steering, although my manual-steering 36 Pontiac doesn't really qualify. It is easy to drive. The wooden steering wheel on my 1913 Studebaker is a little slippery. It might not hurt to have some for that. Where I grew up we had really cold winters, and I don't remember seeing many fingerless gloves. Gloves used for driving were extremely soft, tight fitting, no liner, and no holes. The idea was to keep your hands from freezing until the heat started to work, but not interfere with any hand motion. They were excellent for grip too, though you probably didn't need that with the big American cars most people were driving. You see gloves that look about like them all over, but put one on and they aren't. They should be like a second skin. Sometime in the late 80s my boss showed up at work with some gloves like that, the real thing. I hadn't seen any in years. They were made of deerskin, and he told me he got them at a gun show. I am not a shooter, but I went to a couple of gun shows looking and came up empty. Last year on a road trip I finally got some. They were at a truck stop out in the middle of the USA somewhere. They had several sizes, deerskin, pigskin, cow leather, black, brown, tan, etc. These are nice, really soft and fit like they should. I have not used them yet, but the Pontiac has no heater and I have a feeling they are going to come in handy. Now I should find some proper fingerless ones like yours too... Nice Hawk, BTW!

Very Interesting. That looks a lot (but not exactly) like the repro mat Bob's Automobilia had for 36 Buicks (when they had them). The Buick mat lacked a few of the flat edges (like around the steering column and the dimmer). I agree yours is probably original. That padding is natural jute too. Does the jute go all the way to the edge of the mat? it looks like it does in your last picture. I would have expected it to taper off or quit before it got to the edge, because the edge is just held down by gravity, isn't it? Was there anything like a boot around your e-brake lever? Any remnants of one? I am really enjoying your posts about this car. Keep it up.

I wired the sockets last night.

Having worked on vehicle electrical systems off and on for a little over 40 years, some professionally and some as a hobbyist, I have still never seen a conversion that wasn't a half-assed mess. I have worked on a LOT of cars that weren't in the shop primarily for electrical issues. Electrical systems weren't even my main thing, driveability was. (There is quite a bit of overlap). No doubt some exist, but I simply don't believe there are many. If they were all over I think I would have seen one by now.

I'll tackle the original question then... If you put it it under the hood, it is more subject to corrosion, but easier to get to it to work on. On the downside, you will have to run an individual wire through the firewall for each circuit inside the car. The less holes in the firewall the better, not only for it's original purpose, but to keep fumes out of the passenger area. If you put it under the dash, and you have to get under there to do anything, and that can be very inconvenient. Also, some of the bigger fuses might be better off under the hood (like for the charging system etc.). It is no accident that many modern cars have one fusebox under the hood and one outside. Some hints for wiring cars:. Voltage drop is a big deal. Every single connection adds more voltage drop. Every crimp, every fork or ring terminal over a screw, every spade, every spot a terminal is CRIPMED on a wire (and not soldered), etc. every time one piece of metal is bolted or riveted to another, every light socket. ALL of these things add voltage drop, and all of them get worse over time. When you wire a car from scratch, do everything in your power to minimize the number of connections. When in doubt, use bigger wire. A fuse is there to protect the WIRE, not whatever is attached to it. So, wherever a new circuit begins, and the wire size gets smaller, thats where the fuse needs to go. Lets take a set of fog lights for an example of what I mean by that. In this example we are going to run a hot wire to the battery. (that maybe isn't the best place in real life, but bear with me.) The fuse should go at the battery. If a short should occur somewhere down the line, the fuse will blow and the wire will be fine. If we put that fuse at the switch, or the relay, or the lights themselves, and a short occurs at some point in-between the battery and the fuse, the wire from the short back to the battery will catch on fire with the full force of the battery and charging system. That last consideration is really the most important.

You could try disconnecting the field wire. That should make it stop charging. If it doesn't, it points to the generator itself. Make sure the field wire isnt bare and grounding out somewhere. Take the regulator can off and see if the points are stuck. Be very gentle, as settings are made by bending things in there slightly. If the points are stuck , carefully unstick them and clean them. A nailfile might work if the points gap is wide enough (don't change the gap). Maybe a razor blade. Avoid emery cloth or sandpaper or anything that might leave grit embedded in the points. One drag of the file oughta do it. Don't try to file them flat or make them new. There might be a layer of precious metal on the contacts, and if so you dont want to remove any. Flaws are ok, even pretty big ones. Just scrape the top layer of crud off the high spots. When done, drag a little strip of paper (printer paper is good) soaked in alcohol or brake cleaner between the points. Disconnect the battery while working inside there.

Do the crank pulley first, and the water pump last. You may literally have to take the generator loose and tip it forward. In that case, do the generator last. It is unlikely that more than one size belt can work given how short the adjusters are on most old cars. I wouldn't run a whole bunch of tension. If it winds up somewhere in the first half of the travel with a new belt, you probably have the right one. When it breaks in it will need to be adjusted. If you are starting out on the last third of the adjuster, there is a good chance you will run out of adjuster when the belt breaks in.